MEMORIAL OF S. W. WILLISTOX 69 



I met Professor Marsh for the first time at New Haven, Connecticut, on March 

 19 or 20, 1876. My heart was in my mouth when I knocked at the basement 

 door of the old Treasury Building and heard the not very pleasant invitation 

 to 'come in,' There was a frown on Marsh's face, accentuated by his near- 

 sightedness, as he waited for me to state my business. No doubt he thought 

 me a wild and woolly westerner, in mj- military cloak, slouch hat, and cowboy 

 boots, as I stammered my name. But he quickly made me feel more at ease. 

 He found me quarters in a little building in the rear of Peabody Museum, then 

 approaching completion. The next day he set me at work studying bird skele- 

 tons with Owen's Comparative Anatomy as a guide. He was then deeply inter- 

 ested in his Odontornithes and wanted newer specimens, especially of the 

 smaller forms, which were very difficult to find in the Kansas chalk. For 

 recreation I helped a few hours every day to carry trays of fossils to the 

 museum." 



Williston was now twenty-four years of age. Vertebrate paleontology 

 had become his first love, but he had leanings toward human anatomy 

 and medicine and entomology, first as an avocation and then as a voca- 

 tion. He was afforded no independent opportunities for paleontological 

 research and publication by Professor Marsh. In the summer seasons of 

 1876 and 1877 he collected with Professor Mudge in the Cretaceous chalk 

 of Kansas. In 1877 he was sent by Professor Marsh to the Morrison, 

 Canyon City, and Como quarries to cooperate with Professors Lakes and 

 Mudge and Mr. Eeed in taking out the types of Atlantosaurus, Diplo- 

 docus, and other sauropods. In Professor Marshes laborator)^ Williston 

 worked on the dinosaurs. In the field in 1878 he helped to collect the 

 "Jurassic mammals'^ and some of the smaller dinosaurs. For nine years 

 (1876-1885) he worked in Professor Marsh's laboratory, where he became 

 closely associated with Marsh's other assistants, especially Harger and 

 Baur, who influenced him greatly and for whom he had great admiration. 

 He wrote a biographic note on Harger in 1887, which gives some inter- 

 esting side lights on the relations of Professor Marsh to his assistants. 

 In 1878 he published a brief communication on American Jurassic dino- 

 saurs in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Sciences ; but he had 

 very little opportunity for further publication in vertebrate paleontology 

 as long as he was in N'ew Haven. This led to the renewal of his medical 

 studies. 



While acting as assistant in paleontology he studied medicine at Yale, 

 received the degree of M. D. in 1880, continued his postgraduate studies, 

 and received the degree of Ph. D. at Yale in 1885. He then became 

 demonstrator of anatomy (1885-1886) and professor of anatomy (1886- 

 1890) at Yale and practiced medicine in New Haven, where he was 

 health officer in 1888-1890. 



In 1886 he published some criticisms of Koken's work on Ornitho- 



